XChat for Windows now shareware

It finally happened. With the explosion of Windows users of XChat, the compiled version is now shareware. It seems there is a lot of bitching going on about this move, and some even say it violates the GPL.

The source for the Windows port is available under the GPL, and if you compile it yourself there is no worry. I have not dug in the code to see if there is the shareware timer, but that would be stupid because there would be no use to charge the $20. Then again, most just wanna download it and run it, so maybe the bandwidth consumption is killing them... I do not know.

This is my point. People complain about open source having a price tag, but this is my thoughts on it. If you spend a lot of time developing and making a product, there is no reason not to charge money for it because the GPL does say free as in beer but not in price. That means if you get the source, you can recompile it, change the code to make it work the way you want. Thus, you can develop your own version and redistribute it yourself :)

I have no qualms about XChat binaries having a price tag. What do you guys think?

mIRC has been shareware for quite some time, so Xchat is just catching up. I have an older version so I probably will not update in the forseeable future being the cheap b*$%&d I am.

If its open source still... then why can't someone just take the "shareware" code out of it?
It shouldn't be too difficult to see what has changed between the versions...

I understand how you say that they should be able to charge for all the hard work the put into it. The idea of open souce isn't free (price) software... its the freedom to do what you want with it. But in order to make it shareware... don't they have to revoke the GPL license? You would no longer have the freedom to redistribute the software with the reg. code?

And... why would they only make the win32 version of it shareware? Why not the *nix versions too?

I have an older version of it too... so I can't see myself upgrading in the near future.
I barely use the damn thing... If it wasn't for it being free... I probably would have never used it.

good thing i have xchat on windows right now, /me goes off to burn a backup.

I think this is not a bad idea, in fact a good compromise. If you put the time in to compile it its free if not then you pay a bit for someone else to do it. The people who put out xchat get a few bucks for their work, they obviously do a good job and deserve it. Everyone wins as far as i am concerned.
I could see other windows gpl'ed software doing this and would applaud them for it as long as it stays this way and does not creep into pure shareware.

the idea of open source software is not to make money. simply because someone does great work doesn't mean they should accept payment from it. Teachers make jack ****, and they do possibly greater work than anyone on earth. They don't do it for the money. the people that write and maintain xchat don't do it as their soul job. This is just another version of selling out.

if anything at all, they should just sell it in stores for people to buy if they wish, but still be able to download the full, binary version. you know, kinda like most linux's :)

if you dont want to pay then you either use something else or make your own......if you wanna use it then you pay - simple enough

i dont have an opinion on wether its a good idea or not but its their software why shouldn't they charge for it?

v_Ln

Whew....not to worry for me. I got the latest version installed and I have a copy of the install on CD. But ummm yea I guess its not all bad. mIRC has been doing it so I figured it was just a matter of time.

im slow and didnt download xchat for win while it was still free :( ...
[sarcasum]
well dern...guess il have to use linux
[/sarcasum]

xchat what's xchat.?.

Oh hang on a quick google down google lane reveals everything i need tah know..

Anyhow me thinks that it's up to the makers of the soft ware wether or not they charge money for it, damn i know if i developed and spent some time coding something, and decided to release it to the general public then i know i would charge a small fee for it, but i'd also let the buyer have the decision on wether or not they pay an extra fee like 50 cents or something and they are able to obtain the coding for the programming with the order..
It's sorta like an upsize deal you get at Mcdonalds..
But it would be different i would be like
"Sir did you wanna upsize that app to a large app with extra source.?.
Customer would be like
"Gee how much extra will this cost me?".
I would be like
"Sir for an extra 50c you will recieve the full app and source code".
Customer
"WoW that sounds like a great deal, sure i'll upsize it for sure.

Damn i write some stupid stuff when i'm drunk :(


f2b:.